05/16/07 – SF Manifesto Is A Republican Platform – AdamsBN 05/16/07 SF Manifesto Is A Republican Platform – AdamsBT 05/16/07 Ministers' Work Goes Under ScrutinyBT 05/16/07 Ahern's Full Speech To The Houses Of ParliamentBN 05/16/07 Ahern And Kenny Prepare For TV ShowdownBN 05/16/07 Kenny Willing To Work With Sinn Féin If ElectedBT 05/16/07 Opin: A Good Day For Republic, A Good Day For BertieBT 05/16/07 Opin: No Winners In Digging Up The PastBT 05/16/07 Opin: From New York: Illegals Should Join The QueueBT 05/16/07 Victims' Family Slams Troubles Internet Game----

05/14/07 – MLAs Resume Debates After Five YearsBT 05/14/07 MLAs Resume Debates After Five YearsBB 05/14/07 Future 'Not Female' In AssemblyBN 05/14/07 McDowell Dismisses New Concerns About Bertie's TaxesBT 05/14/07 Joint Faith School Scheme PleaBT 05/14/07 Opin: New Assembly Must Take The PlungeBT 05/14/07 Opin: Yes, But Can They Get On Their Bikes?BT 05/14/07 A Hero Who Pushed His Luck Just Too FarIN 05/14/07 Famine Commemoration For DublinBT 05/14/07 Eur The Worst Ever----

05/12/07 – SF Agrees to take Up Policing Board PlacesSF 05/13/07 SF Agrees to take Up Policing Board PlacesIV 05/11/07 Irish American High Hopes For NorthBB 05/12/07 Brown 'Has No Extra Cash' For NIBN 05/13/07 Ahern: 'I Have Done Nothing Wrong, Wronged No-One.'IT 05/13/07 Full Text Of Ahern StatementBN 05/13/07 FF Rules Out Coalition With Sinn FéinBT 05/12/07 Boyne Gun Is Taken Out Of Irish PoliticsBT 05/12/07 A Solution To Drumcree Stand-Off Must Be FoundBN 05/13/07 McCabe Killing: O'Neill To Be Released Next WeekSF 05/13/07 SF Will Bring Equality Into Government, North & SouthBB 05/12/07 Sinn Féin Plays Down Drop In PollsTE 05/12/07 Opin: Fragile Calm Behind Ulster's 'Peace Walls'BT 05/12/07 LA Police In Appeal To O'LoanDJ 05/12/07 Museum Of Free Derry Vital For City TourismRT 05/12/07 Eurovision: Time To Re-Appraise Our Approach----

The North's politicians should be able to work together todismantle the walls which physically divide loyalist andrepublican neighbourhoods in Belfast, Martin McGuinness insistedtoday.

As his party Sinn Fein launched a new document at Stormont on howit will engage with the unionist community, the Stormont DeputyFirst Minister hoped the leadership he was providing with theFirst Minister Rev Ian Paisley was giving the right example to asociety moving away from conflict and sectarianism.

And he also dismissed some unionists' claims that in reaching outto their community Sinn Fein should drop its goal of achieving aunited Ireland.

The Sinn Fein MP said: "I think as a result of the work we areengaged in in this Assembly and the work that is being engaged inon the streets that it is an eminently achievable objective tosee the peace walls in Belfast go down.

"But I think it will be a tremendous job of work to bring thatabout.

"I will be engaging with both communities and with others whohave an interest in society to see how that project can berealised because it is, as we all know given the length of thesepeace walls, a massive challenge to all of us."

The Mid Ulster MP was commenting a week after a school whicheducates Catholic and Protestant pupils in north Belfast was tolda 25 foot wall will be erected on its grounds to prevent youthsfrom using the site to launch sectarian attacks.

The Council for Integrated Education said the Northern Irelandoffice decision to erect a peace line in Hazelwood IntegratedPrimary School had come as a bolt out of the blue.

The number of concrete, iron and steel peace lines separatingloyalist and nationalist communities have risen from 18 in theearly 1990s to around 40 today and stretch around 13 miles.

She said: "The development of our Unionist engagement is abouttrying to build up a better understanding of people from thedifferent parts of our community and their experiences.

"It is a two-way street and a slow process but there issignificant engagement between ourselves and people rightthroughout the Protestant, Unionist, and Loyalist community."

Gregory Campbell, however, claims the initiative is destined tofail while Ms. Anderson - a former republican prisoner -spearheads it.

He said: "I understand it may be difficult in an organisationlike Sinn Fein to select someone without such a past but, surely,they could have found somebody.

"They may argue that it is not for the DUP to select itsrepresentatives, and in that context they are right. However, inselecting the type of person they have, they need to understandthat, equally, they have no say in the selection by the DUP ofthose whom we choose to lambast the hypocrisy and sheereffrontery of them carrying out an exercise in the way they areso doing."

DUBLIN, May 27 - For a manuscript written 1,200 years ago andrevered as a wonder of the Western world practically ever since,little is known about the Book of Kells and its splendidlyillustrated Gospels in Latin. But the book may be about tosurrender a few of its many secrets.

Experts at Trinity College in Dublin, where the Book of Kells hasresided for the past 346 years, are allowing a two-year laseranalysis of the treasure, which is one of Ireland's great touristdraws.

The 21st-century laser technology being used, Raman spectroscopy,encourages hopes among those with a romantic view for anecclesiastical intrigue like "The Da Vinci Code" or "The Name ofthe Rose."

But the precise subjects are more mundane. The laser will studythe chemicals and composition of the book, its pigments, inks andpages of fine vellum. Experts estimate that 185 calves would havebeen needed to create the vellum on which the art and scriptureswere reproduced.

Pending the laser analysis, experts assume that expensivematerials for some of the blue pigments came from the gemstonelapis lazuli, mined in northeast Afghanistan. Yellow pigments arebelieved to have been made from arsenic sulfide and, bizarrely,reddish Kermes pigments from the dried pregnant bodies of a genusof Mediterranean insect, suggesting extraordinary trade routesfor the ninth century.

Some techniques will help to analyze the pigments made fromvegetable matter; others will be used to examine the inks.

"A lot of what we have done before has been based on anecdotalreports of the materials that were used," said Robin Adams, thelibrarian of Trinity College, who hopes the exacting dot-by-dotanalysis by laser will unlock secrets and help his staff preservethe book. "Essentially the laser bounces back, and you get aspectrum. That spectrum tells you whether this pigment is lead,copper or whatever. We haven't got the reports yet, but we verymuch expect it to tell us new information about what the monksused."

Mr. Adams hopes that Trinity's manuscript research will answersome of his own questions about the book: "I would like to findout whether this work can tell us its relationship with othermanuscripts. Is the material used in Kells the same as might beused in England or France? It could tell us a bit about themovement of materials around the monastic houses. We would loveto find out how these monastic houses worked as communities, andwhether the techniques were the same. Or whether they developedtechniques because of the raw materials they had at hand. Thatwould tell us new information about the times."

For a religious work, the book has a rather exciting history, butits hazier aspects are unlikely to be discovered by a laser. Itwas created around the year 800 to honor the achievements twocenturies before of Columb, also known as Colm Cille. He was anIrish nobleman who in Ireland and Scotland founded one of theworld's earliest Christian monastic traditions dedicated tolearning and devotion.

Irish legend relates that Colm Cille, after losing a bitter legalruling over his right to make copies of books, went into exile onIona, the Scottish isle where the Book of Kells is thought tohave been written.

But Dutch or Norse Viking raiders landed in 806, and Irish monksevidently removed the book for safekeeping. Eventually it madeits way to the Kells in County Meath, a monastery outside Dublin.

There it survived new waves of raids, including one by banditswho made off with the book in 1007, according to contemporarychronicles. It was recovered two months later, under dirt,stripped of its gold covering.

The book stayed in Kells until Cromwell's wars in the 17thcentury. A senior Protestant clergyman, Henry Jones, who hadserved as a quartermaster general for the invading army, is saidto have "donated" the book to Trinity College sometime after1661.

With the original binding lost, the book was split over the yearsinto four volumes. Two are now on display in "Turning DarknessInto Light," an exhibit at Trinity College, while the others arebeing analyzed.

The enduring mystery about whether the book was written on Iona,Kells or at another Colm Cille monastic site will likely endure.Maybe only a testing of the DNA of the vellum would reveal theage and source of the calfskins used at that time and reveal theplace of the book's manufacture. Mr. Adams would like to know ifsuch an analysis could unlock that secret.

"I have always wondered whether a technique could tell us wherethe cattle were and where they came from," Mr. Adams said. "Didthe skins move around - was there a trade in the skins or werethey produced locally? That would add to our knowledge. But thatis what we are doing in applying these new techniques."

There is no doubt about the book's appeal in the present day: itattracts more than 550,000 visitors annually, vying with theGuinness Brewery tour up the road in central Dublin as Ireland'smost popular site.

Its popularity leads to crowds during the summer, and there areplans to expand its display area in the college library building,which dates from 1732. It has yet to be decided whether the bookwill need to be removed during any building work.

Other academics vouch for the book's world importance. "It is oneof the most precious books on the planet," said Terry Dolan,professor of English at University College Dublin. But ProfessorDolan said the book had another secret that technology would notreveal.

"Little is documented about how the book came to be removed fromKells in the first place and how it ended up in Trinity," hesaid. "There is yet another fascinating mystery story there."

THE late Progressive Unionist leader David Ervine is to return toTV screens in a laugh-a-minute episode of the comedy showAnonymous

.Ervine, who passed away on January 8 following a heart attack,took part in the RTE series shortly before his death.

And now his wife Jeanette and family have given their consent forthe episode to be screened on RTE 2 next Monday night.

The popular loyalist politician was one of three politicalrepresentatives in the North who agreed to take part in theprogramme fronted by comedian Jason Byrne.

Unwittingly, they were interviewed by Belfast comedian PatrickKielty, who was cleverly disguised as a spoof New York TVreporter, Betty Silverman. This is the second series of the showwhich features well-known celebrities taking on various disguisesand using them to fool their own family, friends and generalpublic.

Funnyman Patrick Kielty agreed to transform himself into thecharacter of Betty, an eccentric TV reporter on a mission touncover some truths about Ireland.

On a trip to Belfast, "she" interviewed various people in orderto define a true northern sense of humour and to find out whetherCatholics or Protestants have the better sense of humour.

Despite Patrick's masculine frame, he managed to fool his victimsand even affected a throaty voice which his interviewees acceptedas being female.

Show producers had also arranged for him to speak with a numberof northern political representatives, including Paul Maskey ofSinn Fein, John Dallat of the SDLP and David Ervine.

The trio were all asked to explain the Northern sense of humour,with Ervine maintaining his professional manner despite theobvious questions surrounding Betty's authenticity.

The result is an engaging and hilarious picture of the latepolitician, credited with playing a critical role in the peaceprocess.

His family's decision to allow RTE to screen the comic piece sixmonths after his passing proves that they have put the appallingincident of the incorrect reporting of his death behind them.

Mr Ervine was wrongly reported dead by RTE on Sunday, January 7,after suffering two massive heart attacks and a stroke.

He had been admitted to the Ulster Hospital in Dun-donald and RTEreporters revealed on the station's main news bulletin that hehad died. However, he did not pass away until the followingafternoon.

The Irish American Unity Conference urges the German governmentto cease their prosecution of Roisin McAliskey.

The German government is seeking the extradition of RoisinMcAliskey. She is the mother of two children and the daughter ofFormer UK MP Bernadette Devlin McAliskey.

The European arrest warrant alleges that Ms McAliskey wasinvolved in bombing in 1996. However, the UK in 2001 declined toprosecute her on the same charges, because there was insufficientevidence.

John Fogarty, President of the Irish American Unity Conference,said: “To quote British Prime Minister, William Gladstone:‘Justice delayed, is justice denied’. Eleven years after theevent and 6 years after the court ruled there was insufficientevidence, the German government is again attempting to prosecuteher. The ability for anyone to mount an effective defenseagainst such charges at this late date is very doubtful.

“It is ironic that six years ago, the German government supportedthe jailing of a pregnant Roisin in a high security men’s prison,but now they did not object to her bail for the same allegedcrime.

“We call on the German government to cease this prosecution ofRoisin McAliskey, a mother who is raising her two small childrenin N Ireland. If they are unwilling to agree, we urge the Britishgovernment to deny her extradition to Germany.”###

http://www.iauc.org/Email: iauc@iauc.orgNational Press Officer: Jay DoolingEmail: rdooling@swbell.net"Working for Justice and Peace in a Re-united Ireland”The IRISH AMERICAN UNITY CONFERENCE is a nationwide,nonpartisan, nonsectarian, chapter-based human rightsorganization working for justice and peace in Ireland. Weare a wholly American 501(c)(4) organization that advocatesthe end of British colonial occupation and the peacefulreunification of Ireland . We endeavor to achieve thesegoals by working through the American democratic process.Individually, our members represent every occupational andeducational stratum in the United States .

The Green Party is considering its options after the outcome ofthe General Election.

Party Leader Trevor Sargent said: "With six TDs elected to the30th Dail, the Green Party is in a strong position to implementits progressive policy agenda.

"We have held our representation in Dail Eireann and increasedour vote in extremely difficult circumstances. We experienced thesame 'squeeze' as other small parties, but unlike Sinn Fein, thePDs, Labour and the Socialists, we managed to maintain our levelof representation.

"Our Parliamentary Party has held initial discussions thisafternoon and over the next days we will be taking soundingswithin the party on how to proceed.

"We want a responsible, stable and effective government and atthis stage we are ruling nothing out."

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has said his party's loss ofseats in the election was 'obviously a disappointment'.

He said it was always going to be a difficult election for SinnFein and claimed that the established parties for monthsbeforehand were trying to make the party irrelevant.

Mr Adams said that in the course of the campaign it became areferendum on the Taoiseach and who voters wanted to run theeconomy.

He said all of the other issues that Sinn Fein puton the political agenda about public services, the equalityagenda, Irish unity and the environment, are issues which theincoming Government was going to have to address.

Mr Adams said it is unprecedented and very challenging to try andbuild in jurisdictions in a partitioned Ireland but he thinksthat Sinn Fein is up for that challenge.

He said Sinn Fein should be judged on the changes they arecapable of bringing about.

He believes the people voted for continuity but they are stilldissatisfied that the economy is not serving the public services,that the equality agenda still needs to be dealt with and thatIrish unity still remains an attainable goal.

Mr Adams said he wants to see an end to a British jurisdiction onthis island and he believes it is attainable.

He said that when it came to it, with a booming economy peopledecided that they did not want change.

Party analysis: In times of trouble, Sinn Fein has a tendency ofputting its head down, committing itself to working harder andsuffering tunnel vision.

Such an attitude will not help it come to terms with the verdictof the Republic's electorate, one that fundamentally changes itsfuture south of the border.

Before Thursday, every other party believed that Sinn Fein wouldmake gains on its five outgoing seats. Some said eight. Some said10. None predicted a loss. Instead, it lost Se n Crowe in DublinSouth West and saw Aengus O Snodaigh elected without reaching thequota after a struggle in Dublin South Central.

Its grand hopes for Mary Lou McDonald in Dublin Central collapsedafter she received 1,800 fewer votes than Nicky Keogh won therein 2002, and then got few transfers.

In Donegal North East, P draig Mac Lochlainn added more than3,000 to his 2002 first preference tally, only to be defeated byFine Gael's Joe McHugh. Nearby, in Donegal South West, PearseDoherty secured 8,462 votes, adding nearly 6,000 to his 2002first preference result, but it still was not enough.

However, his real rise is less because his 2002 tally was reducedby the 2,630 votes received at the time by the then Independent,Thomas Pringle, who later joined Sinn Fein. Nevertheless,O'Doherty's total would have been enough in other times to havewon on Friday, but he suffered from the massively increased voteof Fine Gael's Dinny McGinley.

On the northside of Dublin, the situation was even worse, whereLarry O'Toole failed in Dublin North East and Dessie Ellis inneighbouring North West. While O'Toole won 1,300 more votes thanin 2002, receiving 4,661, he received a poor share of the GreenParty's David Healy's transfer before falling at the third count.Dessie Ellis needed a much increased first preference vote on2002 to win - given the lack of potential transfers - but hemanaged to add fewer than 100 votes.

In Waterford, David Cullinane, one of the party's strong hopes,managed to add just 350 votes to his 2002 result, and then pulledin fewer than 1,000 transfers before his chance expired. InWexford, New Ross-based John O'Dwyer equally failed to get farenough up the electoral poll to stay in, receiving 5,068 firstpreferences - just over 100 more than five years ago, but heagain failed to attract transfers, finding fewer than 400 fromlimited available sources before going out.

Though the results will be much perused, all of them cannot beput down to Sinn Fein being caught in the vice-grip of strongFine Gael and Fianna Fail showings. The "squeeze factor" doesexplain some of the party's difficulties, but seats in working-class areas such as Dublin North West should have been ripe forthe taking.

So what has happened? In places such as Tallaght the workingclass has become middle class or at least possessed of middle-class aspirations. Jobs are more plentiful, mortgages secured.Some who voted for Sinn Fein before now have assets to protect.

Equally, Sinn Fein failed to convince those who voted for them inlocal elections to do so for the Dail. "They see us ascouncillors, not as TDs," complained one SF source. The poorshowing was privately feared by a minority in Sinn Fein's ParnellSquare headquarters days before voting, though none forecast itsscale.

While party leader Gerry Adams' poor TV debate showing turned offmany who saw it, it had just as damaging a "viral" impact as wordspread to those who had not. "He was too programmed, toopackaged. He is better off the cuff. So, too, is Mary Lou.

"We have to show more passion. People like the Greens' Eamon Ryanshow it. We must too. We must show people why we are right.Because we are not going to change our views," said one partycouncillor.

But Sinn Fein has had many bad days. May 25th is a daysignificant for many in Sinn Fein since it marks the anniversaryof Cllr Eddie Fullerton's murder in Donegal in 1991. "We have hada lot of bad days. Friday was one. We must regroup, and do thingsdifferently. We can't continue to do everything like we did," hesaid.

"We want to be in government in both parts of this island," hetold his party's ard fheis on March 3, "because that is a meansto fulfil our historic mission to bring about a truly nationalrepublic and a truly national government."

Last week voters in the Republic postponed the revolution,handing Sinn Fein their most serious election setback in recentmemory.

Instead of doubling their seats in the Dail and becoming temptingpartners in government for Bertie Ahern, they ended up losing oneseat and getting behind the Greens in the queue for power.

Bankable gains in Donegal and Dublin fizzled out. They lost aseat in Dublin where they topped the poll last time. Thecandidate they had promoted most - Marylou McDonald - ended uplosing ground in Bertie Ahern's home constituency.

The party could draw some comfort from a slight increase in theirvote - 6.9% against 6.5% in 2002, but that was to be expected.They were running more candidates in more constituencies andtherefore should have seen the vote go up.

But the final share was considerably down from the 2004 localgovernment elections, and less than the polls indicated. Thewheels haven't come off, but the fast-track to government is nolonger there.

The setback was remarkable for several reasons. It was theirfirst reverse in a steady climb stretching back over the peaceprocess - at least from the time of the second, enduring, IRAceasefire.

The loss also went against the party's own predictions. Sinn Feintend to be accurate and conservative in their forecasts: theaccuracy comes from knowing their electorate intimately, theconservatism from knowing the media and their political opponentswould jump all over them if they fell short - one prediction thatis proving accurate.

But one of the most notable outcomes is that blame is beingvisited on Mr Adams, including some open internal criticism.

In the Republic, Sinn Fein's rise has been closely connected toGerry Adams. Polls generally rate him as the second or third mostpopular party leader, behind Bertie Ahern.

But his performance during the most public outing in thiscampaign, an RTE debate of the minor party leaders, was widelyconsidered to have been poor.

Progressive Democrat leader Michael McDowell (who lost his seat)mocked Mr Adams' claim to draw the average industrial wage -asking how he managed to afford his second home in Donegal inthose circumstances.

A more serious criticism was that he appeared vague on importantSouthern issues, like the economy and health.

That may have reinforced notions that Sinn Fein is defined by theNorth.

This may give Mr Adams pause for thought. Like some Africandictator or Free Presbyterian moderator, there was an assumptionthat Adams was president for life, if he so chose.

But in one of his autobiographies he says he was reluctant toassume the leadership of Sinn Fein because he believes the partyis better led by someone from the South. Instead, the upper tiersof his party are dominated by Northerners.

Mr Adams' ard fheis speech was evidence of what turned out to bemassive overconfidence.

He gave the signal that he was ready for government and theSouthern electorate did not respond. Why must be an importantconsideration as they set about regrouping for the localgovernment elections.

Could their appeal in the South have been based on theirreasonableness when cast against unionist intransigence? Is thatgone now that the DUP is gung-ho for power-sharing and IanPaisley is matey with Bertie?

Mr Paisley does his deal and Sinn Fein come out looking weaker.Does that make the DUP winners from the Republic's generalelection? That really was an unexpected result.

"I was always confident... when we got Sinn Fein into a situationwhere we were talking about bread and butter issues, talkingabout economic issues," he said.

"People saw that a party that has a Marxist, a socialistphilosophy is not really in tune, particularly with the youngerpopulation who are all working, have cars, go on holidays and aretrying to buy a house."

Fianna Fail secured 78 seats in the 166-seat assembly, but saw adecline in the vote of its previous coalition partners, theProgressive Democrats.

Mr Ahern now faces the prospect of tough talks with oppositionparties to build a coalition government.

Coalition

He can count on two independents and two surviving ProgressiveDemocrats.

A top-level think-tank closely connected to the US military haslinked an alleged $2 million payment made by Colombian guerrillasto the IRA with Sinn Fein's election campaign.

The bombshell report - by the influential Rand Corporation - islikely to re-ignite the controversy over the Provos' links withthe Marxist FARC movement.

The report - on the sharing of information between varioussubversive organisations around the world and its impact on USsecurity - comes as Sinn Fein failed to live up to pre-pollpredictions in the Republic's general election.

While much of the report investigating the links relies onpreviously-published material - which claimed IRA members trainedFARC in the use of mortars and other technology - it goes furtherby linking cash raised in Colombia to Sinn Fein and its electioncampaigns.

The IRA reportedly received $2m in exchange for training FARC, asthe rural-based organisation wanted to step up its campaign inurban areas.

The report, which draws on published documents and privateinterviews with security officials in Ulster, concludes: "The IRA. . . may have seen the opportunity to advise FARC as a newsource of funding. British intelligence has speculated that PIRAcould have received as much as $2m for its efforts, which wouldmake up for some of the losses suffered as a result of reductionsin funds collected from US sources."

It continued by linking the alleged FARC cash to Sinn Fein.

"The costs of running a nationwide organisation such as SinnFein, which boasts 1,500 election workers, is expensive and thegroup's criminal operations may not be enough to sustain itmilitarily and politically."

While the Rand Corporation says the expertise FARC gained leddirectly to the deaths of hundreds, the IRA has never admittedits members were involved in training the rebels.

Three men - Martin McCauley, James Monaghan and Niall Connolly -were arrested as they attempted to leave Colombia using falsedocuments in August 2001.

They were initially acquitted of training FARC, but convicted oftravelling on false documents. As prosecutors appealed, the threewere freed and went into hiding.

They have consistently denied training FARC and claimed they werein the country to learn about the stalled peace process there andto educate the movement's leaders about Ireland. Following theappeal, which overturned the acquittals, the three did not comeout of hiding and later returned to Ireland.

The Rand Corporation was set up 60 years ago to advise the USmilitary, with which it still has close links, but it has sinceexpanded to become one of the most influential advisory bodies inthe country.

Senior White House officials, such as Secretary of StateCondaleeza Rice and former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,have close connections to the think-tank.

The report baldly states that the IRA became involved with FARCfor other reasons apart from the cash.

These included using the FARC-controlled zone to test weapons.The report states that, in spite of denials by the 'ColombiaThree', authorities in the troubled South American country begannoticing an improvement in FARC's ability to carry out moresophisticated operations.

"Beginning in early 2001, FARC began intensifying its operations,killing more than 400 members of the Colombian armed forces in 18months, using car-bombs, secondary devices and homemade mortars."

While the Rand Corporation promotes itself as an objective think-tank, some critics argue it has too close ties to the military-industrial complex in the US.

The report suggests that the IRA linked up with FARC becausefunding from America was drying up after the events of September11, 2001.

Yet the Colombia Three were taken into custody weeks before 9/11,while elsewhere the report concludes that IRA members weretravelling to the South American country from 1998.

Nevertheless, the IRA/FARC link continues to be controversial inspite of the huge progress made in the Ulster peace process.During the general election campaign, outgoing Justice MinisterMichael McDowell and Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams wereinvolved in a tetchy exchange that included a reference to theColombia connection.

When Adams expressed concern about the drug problem in Ireland,the Progressive Democrat leader accused the republican movementof being willing to sell "Provo know-how" to "narco-terrorists"for $25m - a figure never before alleged.

The Rand report - Sharing The Dragon's Teeth: Terrorist GroupsAnd The Exchange of New Technologies - also investigates linksbetween different organisations in other parts of world,including South-East Asia and Palestine.

The senior PSNI officer tasked with dealing with collusioninquiries today warned that handling the past is a "drag anchoron policing".

Assistant Chief Constable Alister Finlay made the comments as itemerged that collusion probes have already cost the PSNI almostœ4m - putting the known price tag of the investigations beyondœ25m before full hearings have started.

With the Billy Wright Inquiry due later this week to become thefirst of the inquiries to begin full hearings, Mr Finlay revealedthat police preparation will cost œ2m this year.

He said the force also spent œ1.6m last year dealing with thethree collusion inquiries that have opened, as well as two probesunder way in the Republic.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Finlay - who washired last year specifically to deal with inquiries because thework was " eclipsing " another senior officer's work on currentcrime - said that " dealing with the past is a drag anchor" onpolicing.

He also admitted he expects the police and other agencies to becriticised by the inquiries for the loss of records.

He said the PSNI has handed the first inquiry a substantial bodyof material about Wright's murder in the Maze Prison in 1997, buthas been unable to find all the records requested.

Mr Finlay acknowledged that some retiring officers took recordswith them, but says he is not aware of anyone deliberatelydestroying material to keep it out of the hands of the inquiries.

The ACC said the PSNI is committed to helping the inquiries, buthas concerns that "covert methodology" could be exposed by theinvestigations.

He also questioned whether the inquiries provide "best value".

"We've got a lot of money looking at the past. Is that the bestway of utilising it?" he asked.

"These are tragic events and it's understandable why families andassociates must have questions arise in their minds eitherconfirmed, denied or dispelled.

"But there are very real dangers that through the portrayal ofthose events, it adversely affects the relations that we'rebuilding in policing today."

The Wright Inquiry is the first of three separate collusionallegations being investigated. Inquiries into the deaths ofsolicitor Rosemary Nelson and Portadown man Robert Hamill arecurrently in the preparation stages. A fourth inquiry recommendedby Canadian judge Peter Cory is due to examine the murder ofsolicitor Patrick Finucane, but it has not been established.

The Wright Inquiry, which begins hearings in Banbridge onWednesday, has been the least expensive of the probes so far.

By last December, it had cost the Government œ3.9m. The HamillInquiry was put at œ7.5m at the same time, and in March theGovernment said the Rosemary Nelson Inquiry had cost œ11.6m. Theœ3.6m spent by the PSNI is accounted separately.

Alister Finlay has one of the most unusual commands in policing.An assistant chief constable, he is at the top tier of the PSNI,yet generally has just four police officers working for him.

But he does have lawyers, squads of administrative clerks andresearchers. Files and records are his beat.

ACC Finlay is yesterday's man - in the sense that he isprofessionally occupied with the past.

The first of four expected collusion inquiries begins later thisweek, when retired Scottish judge Lord MacLean begins full formalhearings on the murder of LVF leader Billy Wright.

ACC Finlay, a 46-year-old Scot who came to the PSNI fromStrathclyde Police, is in charge of the PSNI's preparations.Already, they have handed over something like 1,000 files to thisinquiry team, but the other three inquiries - looking into thedeaths of Robert Hamill, Rosemary Nelson and Pat Finucane - willall demand even greater involvement from the PSNI.

Preparation for the collusion inquiries and two others in theRepublic - without considering the expense of the legal teamsthat will represent the PSNI at hearings - is costing police œ2mthis year alone. Between this year and last year, the total isabout œ3.6m.

And it's a full-time job. Mr Finlay was hired last year becausethe inquiry workload - previously handed to the ACC in charge ofCrime Operations, Peter Sheridan - was starting to swamp otherareas.

"The time Peter was having to give to the issues around theinquiries was eclipsing the time that he could actually deal withthe current crime," said Mr Finlay.

"That says something about the scale of work and demand and alsohow these inquiries aren't straightforward.

"We are talking about public inquiries into areas that we haven'treally had public inquiries into before, into how the police andother security services went about their business."

Much of Mr Finlay's job is about facilitating the inquiries -finding material and handing it over. But it is also partlydefensive - concerned with protecting specific operationalsecrets and the general reputation of the present PSNI againstjudgments on the past.

"There's a lot of effort going on in this organisation dealingwith the past, and we're anxious to do it," he said at his officeoutside Carrickfergus.

But he added: "Dealing with the past is a drag anchor for thisorganisation.

"Because time has passed and things have changed so much, itactually influences some of the really positive things we'retrying to achieve at the moment."

He says all the inquiries could end up "raising the wrong notionin people's eyes".

After Wright, the case of Robert Hamill will look at accusationsthat police stood by and failed to intervene when Hamill wasfatally beaten by a loyalist mob. Rosemary Nelson's case concernsthreats allegedly made by police before the Lurgan lawyer wasmurdered by loyalists. One aspect of Finucane is whether policeofficers helped loyalists target the solicitor.

All could have serious consequences for police.

"The inquiries will have a view on how things should be done andcould be improved, but the passage of time between when theseincidents took place and now is such that most, if not all, ofthe things that they may make in their recommendations have beenovertaken by events," said Mr Finlay.

"We have a significantly different organisation going about itsbusiness in a different way and in a different environment. Thereis a real criticality to the inquiries dragging back theprogressive work of PSNI because of the public's perception of itbeing influenced negatively.

"The whole inquiry process has a real potential to distract fromwhat we're doing right now and has a real potential in people'smind to say, this is the police now, as opposed to this was thepolice then in a different context, in a different time,operating in a different way.

"It's not a matter of burying the past. It's aboutcontextualising the past.

"Because there's an awful lot of water passed under the bridge.We're in a different place to where we were in those particulartimes. These are tragic events and it's understandable whyfamilies and associates would like to know more answers, musthave questions arise in their minds either confirmed, denied ordispelled. But there are very real dangers that, through theportrayal of those events, it adversely affects the relationsthat we're building in policing today."

Then is the emphasis on public inquiries justified? "I supposeit's justified if, at the end of the day, people feel satisfied,"he said

"But I don't know if everyone's going to be satisfied with theresults. I mean that from the point of view of going through apublic inquiry process.

"We've got quite a lot of looking back. We've got the publicinquiries looking back, we've got the Ombudsman's Office gettinginvolved in issues of the past, we've got the Historic EnquiriesTeam looking at reviewing the murders during that period.

"I don't know if we've actually joined all that up. I don't knowif there is an opportunity at some point for someone to takestock and say what are we actually trying to achieve - what arewe trying to achieve for the future of Northern Ireland by doingthis? What are we looking for?

"The thing about the public inquiries is they are a judicial,legislative process. They involve lots of lawyers. They take along time because they've got rules of engagement and a legalprocess. They cost a lot of money. Do they provide best value? Idon't know if they do.

"I think currently the inquiries are around œ18m. Our runningcosts this year will be around œ2m.

"Presumably, if I'm incurring about œ2m, then there are otheragencies incurring significant sums of money. It's a lot of moneythat might be used in a different way."

The Wright Inquiry has already brought criticism down on thePrison Service for the destruction of some key files and the lossof others.

But Mr Finlay has indicated they will not be alone - admittingthat the PSNI and other agencies will probably be criticised forpoor recordkeeping, although possibly not to the same degree asthe Prison Service.

"All the information that we have of the Billy Wrightinvestigation has been made available," he said.

"There's some things they've asked us for and we have to say 'no,we can't find it'. And I've said to the inquiry if we can't findit, we can't find it. I'm not going to tell you otherwise. We'renot going to make it up and pretend we have something we don'thave. We've searched as comprehensively as we can through adiverse and wide estate."

He added: "I'm sure we will all get some adverse comments aboutrecordkeeping.

"But that's not unique. I think that, when you find the HealthService have their public inquiries... if they're making aninquiry into something it relies on the records and people'srecollection.

"Very often public inquiries are much closer to the event thanthese ones are. So, we've had a long period of time when theopportunity for the records to go missing, not maliciously, butput into cupboards or storage and without having at that time awhole structure of records' management that allows you to storethings properly and archive things.

"No-one, I think, at a particular time went about thinking'there's going to be a public inquiry over this, we better keepall this together'.

"Around the late 90s and prior to that, the organisation wasn'treally set up to focus on recordkeeping and archiving as beingone of its core tasks. Its core tasks were saving lives,preventing crime, disrupting activity, a whole host of thingsthat came as more important to do rather than the maintenance oflibraries, of files and such."

He says recordkeeping is better now, partly because of newrequirements in the law. But prior to those changes, retiringofficers did walk away with some records, especially theirpersonal log books or journals.

"Historically, that did happen," he said. "The organisationdidn't have any controls in place.

"For some reason, and I can't make any explanation why, there wasno real structure in place round about journals. And people wouldwrite a lot in their journal.

"And then, when they retired, we didn't have anywhere to givethem into. In some cases, we do know of officers who said 'yeah,I took my journals with me when I retired because there was noother option and we've now destroyed them'. Maybe they didn'twant them lying about.

"In other cases, we've been able to go to officers who say 'yesI've got my journals', and we'll then take them back and we'llstore them securely."

Also stored securely, in London, are the records of the StevensInquiry's three investigations into collusion.

Those records, which will be especially crucial to the FinucaneInquiry if it is ever established, are under the direction of thePSNI. Recently, Metropolitan Police sources claimed MI5 and theMoD have been demanding the return of sensitive documents anddestroying them.

"My understanding is that (it) is not an accurate portrayal ofevents," said the ACC. Any documents that have been returned, hesays, have been copied.

"The Stevens Inquiry document collection is intact," he added.

For the foreseeable future, ACC Finlay will be dealing with thepast.

He says the inquiries could be a "valuable learning opportunity",but says again "so much has changed between the times when theseincidents took place and now".

"They all have the potential of distracting from what PSNI isdoing today and how PSNI is working in the community for policingtoday and tomorrow."

Senior republicans and loyalists attended the official launch ofBelfast Reconciliation Network last week. The network wasestablished in 2001 at the height of community tensionsparticularly in North and East Belfast.

Engagement and dialogue have been the cornerstones of thenetwork's approach to interface tension and conflict resolution.Their success was evident in the wide range of people andorganisations attending the launch.

While the initiative came from nationalist communities seeking todevelop post ceasefire strategies, engagement with loyalistcommunities has necessarily been a key component.

The presence of former combatants, senior republicans andunionist paramilitaries from both the UVF and UDA, as well asofficials from the NIO and 26 County Department of ForeignAffairs gave some indication of the headway already achievedthrough conflict resolution.

The initiative was launched by Martin McAleese, husband of thePresident of Ireland, Mary McAleese, and chaired by GerryMcConville of the Falls Community Council. McConville describedthe initiative as "a milestone in the road to conflicttransformation". McAleese said the recent developments atStormont provided a new opportunity for interface disputes to beresolved using "brainpower not firepower".

Golden moment

McAleese said hearts and minds were widely engaged in peacemakingas never before providing a "golden moment bursting withopportunity". Interface areas "that have suffered so much duringrecent troubles" have "a huge contribution to make to thesuccessful future," said McAleese.

"The landscape of tomorrow will not be a landscape of waste butof wonder at what this coming generation can achieve when outfrom the shadows of the past," said McAleese.

McAleese urged communities to "fast forward into a betterfurture" by getting involved. The needs of interface communitiesmirrored each other and instead of working separately they neededto find solutions together, said McAleese.

Speaking on behalf of the network, Se n Murray said the grouphoped to develop a common strategy to interface issues withloyalists.

"Our aim is to develop a common decisive approach to interfaceissues. These are the communities who have suffereddisproportionately more than any other during the conflict," saidMurray.

"When the political process was stalled it was groups likeourselves who encouraged dialogue and engagement between the twocommunities. With the return of devolution the feel-good factoris at its zenith," said Murray.

"We need a common strategy to tackle social deprivation, pooreducational achievements and a host of other issues which haveblighted the working class communities that have been divided bypeacelines for 30 years. We want to develop a joint vision whichwill make the peacelines redundant and devoid of fear andhatred," he said.

"We want to develop the vision of a shared future. We believe wecan only start to tackle these issues when we are speaking withone united voice for people on either side of the peaceline,"said Murray.

"Weaponry no longer viable option"

Frankie Gallagher of the UDA-aligned Ulster Political ResearchGroup said loyalists should now learn from republicans. Welcomingthe initiative Gallagher said republicans and loyalists had beenpolitically and culturally miles apart while only living a"stone's throw away" from each other.

Gallagher said republicans and loyalists had travelled a similarpolitical journey since the 1994 ceasefires with one significantdifference.

"Your community has, through a process of conflict resolution andtransformation, learnt and moved to a position that you can nowprove the most powerful weapon is the ballot box," saidGallagher.

"This is in itself a major achievement and you must be recognisedand congratulated in your achievement. Loyalists must now learnhow to make the ballot box work. Weaponry is no longer a viableoption," he said.

Tom Roberts, former UVF prisoner welcomed the interfaceinitiative as a "genuine attempt to address a legacy of conflict.

"Catholic and Protestant families in working class areas had beenblighted by sectarianism and there was an onus on republicans andloyalists to take part in genuine engagements to find lastingsolutions to interface problems", said Roberts.

"Abraham Lincoln famously said 'Am I not destroying my enemieswhen I make friends of them?' I hope that is what we canultimately achieve," said Roberts.

From a Northern Ireland perspective, the election to the 30thDail in the Republic has worked out favourably. The British andIrish Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, both investeda tremendous amount of time and personal commitment into theprovince's peace process, building on the tentative foundationslaid by their predecessors. It is debatable if the new devolvedgovernment at Stormont would have emerged but for their efforts.

With Mr Blair now in the final days of office, the last thing thefledgling power-sharing Executive needed was a change ofleadership in the Republic. Mr Ahern has long experience of thepolitical process which led to the resurrection of devolvedgovernment. His victory in the Republic's election ensures acontinuity of the relationship which has been established betweenthe two parts of this island and provides a crucial backdrop ofstability for the Executive.

Although the exact shape of the new coalition government inDublin is not yet clear, Mr Ahern has a number of suitablepartners to choose from, including the two remaining PD TDs, anumber of independents and the Green Party. The only alliancethat has been firmly ruled out is between Fianna Fail and SinnFein. It is ironic that the party which Mr Ahern and othersrealised was crucial to success in forming an administration inBelfast will play no part in his deliberations on the newgovernment of nationalist Ireland.

For Sinn Fein the election results were pretty disastrous. Buoyedby its increasing domination of the nationalist community in theNorth, Sinn Fein was confident that its new status as a party ofgovernment would lead to further gains in the Republic. Insteadit lost a seat and now has only four TDs. But, as party presidentGerry Adams pointed out, Sinn Fein is a party which knows how tofight the long fight and it may be premature to consign it to thestatus of bit player in the Republic's political game.

In a way Sinn Fein's performance shows that for the electorate inthe Republic, Northern Ireland is a side issue. The bread andbutter of politics ? health, education, the economy ? are theissues which really matter. Partition, a matter which used to beknown as the 'national question', is now barely an issue south ofthe border.

These are quite astonishing times. Who could have imagined thatpolitical enemies like the DUP and Sinn Fein would now be thedominant partners in the power-sharing Executive? And who wouldhave imagined that Ian Paisley and Bertie Ahern would have forgedwhat seems a genuine and amiable relationship? And who would haveimagined that Fianna Fail, the party known as "The Soldiers ofDestiny", is playing a vital role in underpinning, rather thanundermining, a Stormont government?

Something about Elena

The courage and selflessness shown by the little girl featured onour front page today is truly remarkable.

Elena Byrne may be just ten years old, but she has more energyand initiative than most grown-ups.

Elena has been nominated by her babysitter for the 12th annualBreathing Life awards. This star-studded ceremony celebrates theachievements of people with Cystic Fibrosis and Elena has aparticularly long list of achievements for one so young.

At just ten, she is a talented young writer and is also studyingfor her Spanish GCSE. But these are just some of her gifts. Shealso paints, golfs and plays the tin whistle and piano.

Even more impressively, Elena has also helped care for hergrandfather, grandmother and an aunt during recent illnesses. Andevery Christmas and Easter Elena gives all but one of herpresents back to her mum and they are raffled at school to raisemoney for Cystic Fibrosis research. She has already raised œ2,000for charity.

She achieves all these despite the constant battle of living withCystic Fibrosis, and the very demanding treatments necessary toease it.

Whether Elena wins an award in London this week doesn't reallymatter. In our judgment, she is already a winner.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus - better known simplyby the initials MRSA - is a major health issue that has grippedthe public consciousness of this country and blighted thehospital service for years, but it is obviously not high on theradar of the Belfast-based leader of Sinn Fein.

Asked last month by Ursula Halligan on her TV3 Political Partyprogramme about the major political issues facing the electorate,Adams cited the "crisis" in the health service over "MRSI".

It is possible that Mr Adams confused MRSA with MagneticResonance Spectroscopic Imaging, an important non-invasiveimaging device used to detect cancer.

It wasn't the only lapse by the leader of a political partyrunning for election in this State - a State which he and hisparty, up to very recently, consistently referred to as "the 26Counties" and its parliament as "Leinster House".In an interviewlast Friday evening with Sean O'Rourke on RTE radio, Adamsreferred to Pearse Doherty, his party candidate in "Donegal NorthWest". "Donegal South West," O'Rourke corrected, causing Adams tomumble: "Sorry, South West."

The Sinn Fein leader's lack of certainty about any of the majorissues facing the republic's electors was compounded by hisperformance during the smaller party leaders' debate on RTE 10days ago.

He became a target for Michael McDowell, who turned on Adams,saying his organisation had "sold Provo know-how to the Farcguerillas in Colombia in exchange for 25 million dollars".

Adams attempted to assure viewers that he, personally, was aperson of frugal means living on the "average industrial wage".McDowell immediately asked about Adams's holiday home - aconverted traditional stone house situated in one of the mostdesirable areas of Donegal and worth anywhere between ?600,000and ?1m.

Adams's self-exposure as a vacant lot on the political landscapeof the Republic of Ireland was further compounded by anotherfarce over Sinn Fein's economic policy, or lack of it. At its ArdFheis in February last year, the party proposed raisingcorporation tax from 12 per cent to 18 per cent, and income taxfor those earning over ?100,000 a year to 50 per cent.

Again, when questioned about his party's tax policies on RTEthree weeks ago, Adams said it had decided that it would not beproposing raising either corporation or income tax. The party hadapparently "thrashed around the issues" and decided to throw outlast year's policy.

Compounding Adams's failures was the likely perception of his IRAhistory and the spectre of the IRA and its descent into murderouscriminality in this State.

Esther Uzell-Rafferty's intervention in Dublin South-Easthighlighted the murder of her brother, Joseph Rafferty, by an IRAman who, until this election, worked for Sinn Fein. Eighteenmonths ago Sinn Fein's candidate in Dublin South-East, DaithiDoolan, was riding at 13 per cent in constituency polls.

The constituency of the Minister for Justice was a very high-profile target for Sinn Fein, which poured money and resourcesinto Doolan's campaign. On Thursday he received only five percent of the first-preference vote.

Although it was an issue almost completely ignored by parts ofthe national media, the IRA's involvement in murder and majorcriminality on both sides of the border has clearly remained abackground issue for electors.

The convicted paedophile rapist Christy Griffin - the man at thecentre of the vicious feud in north inner Dublin - was also aclose associate of the former "officer commanding" of the IRA inDublin and also another Sinn Fein election worker.

And, though it might not have impacted widely on the electorate,within Fianna Fail there was certainly suspicion about FrankConnolly's role in the propagation of the leaked Mahon tribunaldetails of Bertie Ahern's finances.

The fact that Frank Connolly, who was exposed as having visitedColombia on a false passport and in the company of a leading IRAman, was one of the conduits of this story undoubtedly added toFianna Fail's determination to rally behind their leader.